Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: The thyroid is a multifaced endocrine gland. By its hormones it has an effect on almost all organs of the body, metabolism and defence system too. The relationship between the thyroid hormones and the nonspecific defence system has been less studied.

Aim: To study and prove whether the endogenous thyroxin (FT₄) is involved in the nonspecific defence system of the organism. We followed the correlation between the FT₄ and the C-reactive protein (CRP) in dysthyreosis, because the CRP is a highly sensible acute phase protein (APP), which has an opsonization effect, thus being part of the phagocytosis as well as activates the complement through the C_1q.

Materials and methods: We performed a study on 93 patients between the ages of 7–78 out of which 50 cases were of hyperthyreosis and 43 of hypothyreosis, 79 women and 14 men. We used the method of ECLIA to measure the FT₄ and the method of nephelometry to measure the CRP.

Results: We found that in case of hyperthyreosis (FT₄=21.649±2.93 pg/ml) free of age and gender, 42 (84%) were negative for mean values 4.12±1.87 mg/l, 6 (12%) positive, 2 (4%) slightly positive values; in hypothyreosis (FT₄=3.745±2.0 pg/ml) 36 (83.73%) were negative for mean values 6.80±2.30 mg/l, 2 (4.65%) positive, 5 (11.62%) slightly positive values.The dominant negative values in the two groups are almost the same, but in hypothyroidism proved to be significantly higher than in hyperthyroidism (P<0.001).

Conclusion: The FT₄ neither in the hyperthyreosis nor in the hypothyreosis has an effect on the CRP synthesis. It does not modify this phase of the nonspecific defence system.